Highway 4 on Vancouver Island on track for limited reopening by the weekend

After weeks of being closed due to the Cameron Bluffs wildfire, Highway 4 on Vancouver Island is on track to reopen in a limited fashion by the weekend of June 24, according to the province.

The highway is a critical east-west route connecting the communities of Port Alberni, Ucluelet and Tofino with the rest of the island.

It was shut down on June 6 as the Cameron Bluffs fire, detected a few days prior and suspected to have been caused by human activity, burned on a slope above the highway near Cameron Lake.

The closure led to a long, arduous detour that connected Port Alberni with Lake Cowichan and added more than four hours of travel time, as well as concerns for local businesses and residents.

Now — after the instability of the slope and debris across the highway made an immediate reopening impossible — the highway is set to reopen to limited, single-lane alternating traffic by Saturday.

"Crews ... are installing temporary safety measures to allow the highway to reopen," read a statement from the province. "Safety measures include the installation of a temporary concrete barrier wall in the eastbound lane of Highway 4 as well as protective mesh curtains suspended by cranes."

The reopening comes after the wildfire, covering an area of 2.3 square kilometres near the highway, was brought under control by the B.C. Wildfire Service.

The logging road detour is set to remain in place until the highway is fully open, according to the province. A communication tower has now been placed at the midpoint of the detour, which will provide a reception range of approximately one kilometre.

Plans needed for long-term alternative route: mayors

Mayors of Vancouver Island communities, which were heavily affected by the closure, say there needs to be a long-term solution for an alternative route in case Highway 4 is ever closed again.

Even though the supply chain was largely intact due to the detour, the highway closure led to a significant downturn for businesses in the town of Tofino on the island's west coast, according to Mayor Dan Law.

"Our economy in the summer is largely based on tourism, and so those losses — up to 80 per cent — have been fairly devastating for many businesses," he told Gregor Craigie, host of CBC's On The Island.

The closure, and the arduous detour, led to an uptick in activity for the region's airports, with an official saying that activity at the Port Alberni airport was near pre-pandemic levels.

Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions said that the closure allowed members of her community to travel west and be tourists in Tofino, something she described as a "silver lining" amid the upheaval.

She said that the closure reiterated the need for a "ready-to-go" second route out of the community at all times.

"Maybe it isn't having two highways out of the community, although I think that's definitely our preference," she said. "It might be having three logging roads that are ready to go at any time that are maintained to a certain standard, ready to move out of the community should we need to."

Law said that conversations with the province, including MLA Josie Osborne, had accelerated over the course of the closure and that he hoped a solution would be implemented.